Deutsche Bank cuts ties with 3,400 clients in trading business

By Arno Schuetze | FRANKFURT

FRANKFURT Deutsche Bank’s Global Markets division will cut ties with about 3,400 clients in its debt and equities sales activities, the bank said on Friday. Deutsche Bank will immediately cease debt sales services to some financial institutions and hedge funds as well as equity sales activities, the execution of equities trading orders and equity structuring activities for some clients, a spokesman said, citing an internal memo.

Germany’s biggest bank is looking to shed clients that cost more to service than they bring in in returns as part of efforts to turn around its business and boost its capital.

Deutsche Bank Chief Executive John Cryan is stepping up the restructuring process as the bank finalises talks with U.S. justice authorities over a multi-billion dollar fine related to U.S. mortgages.

In October 2015, Cryan had said at a strategy presentation that Deutsche Bank would reduce the number of clients in its Global Markets and Corporate & Investment Banking divisions by about 50 percent.

“We expect to off-board about half of the current list of clients as the economic returns in these relationships are inadequate to us,” he said at the time. He also said that 80 percent of the investment bank’s income came from 30 percent of clients.

Deutsche Bank is still among the top 5 trading houses in debt and top 10 in equities globally, according to research firm Coalition. But the bank has lost market share as it retreats from a period of expansion, in which it had focused mainly on revenue growth and less on profitability.